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Where Kids Get Their Empty Calories

Nearly 40% of the energy consumed by 2- to 18-year-olds comes
in the form of "empty" calories—those from solid
fats and added sugars—a new study has found. Half of those
empty calories come from the solid fats and added sugars in just
6 sources: soda, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts,
pizza and whole milk.

Over the past 3 decades, childhood obesity rates in America have
tripled. Today, nearly 1 in 3 children nationwide is overweight
or obese, which increases the likelihood of developing diabetes,
heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and asthma.

The growing weight problems of our nation’s children stem
from a combination of greater energy consumption (counted in calories)
and less physical activity. The solution to childhood obesity will
involve changes in both diet and physical activity. The best way
to cut energy intake is to limit unnecessary empty calories.

To help limit the empty calories children are consuming, doctors
and policy makers first need a better understanding of where the
calories come from. Drs. Jill Reedy and Susan M. Krebs-Smith of
NIH’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) set out to examine
the sources of total energy and empty calories in American children’s
diets.

The researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey,
which gathered information on the diets of over 14,000 children
from 2 to 18 years old. The results appeared in the October 2010
issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

The researchers found that nearly 40% of the children’s
total energy came from empty calories. In contrast, experts recommend
that children limit their intake of empty calories to between 8%
and 20% of their total calories. Sugar-sweetened beverages, a major
source of empty calories, contributed a whopping 10% of total energy.

Overall, the top 5 sources of energy for children were grain desserts
(cakes, cookies, donuts, pies, crisps, cobblers and granola bars),
pizza, soda, yeast breads and chicken dishes. Not surprisingly,
the major sources of energy varied by age group. For instance,
beef was a top source for 14- to 18-year-olds, but not for younger
children.

Major energy sources also varied by ethnicity. For example, non-Hispanic
children consumed more energy from sugar-sweetened beverages (soda
and fruit drinks) than from milk, whereas Mexican Americans consumed
more energy from milk than from sugar-sweetened beverages.

Studies have shown that interventions can successfully help people
change their diets. But the researchers emphasize the importance
of reducing the number of empty calories in the food supply in
the first place. "It's unreasonable to expect people to be
able to change their eating behaviors when so many forces in the
environment conspire against making healthy choices," Reedy
says. These findings suggest that sugar-sweetened drinks should
be a major target of efforts to improve our children’s health.